Funeral for slain 6-year-old girl draws hundreds in Long Beach

Tiana Ricks, 6, was gunned down last week in a Moreno Valley garage while with her father.
(photo courtesty of family at memorial site)

LONG BEACH >> A funeral for Tiana Ricks, the 6-year-old Long Beach girl who was killed last weekend when she and her father were shot outside a relative’s home in Moreno Valley, drew hundreds, first to a small community church and then to a Bellflower park where family and friends attended her birthday party that had been planned before her death.

“This is just senseless,” said Alfred Woods of Compton, who had stepped out of the church during the service saying it was too crowded “and too sad” inside. “It’s so sad and senseless that they’re killing innocent kids like this.”

Mourners began to arrive at St. John Missionary Baptist Church on 10th Street around 9:30 a.m. They kept coming until the little community church could hardly hold all of those who came to say a final farewell to a girl whose last concern was for her father, Tyrell Ricks Jr., when they were both shot Saturday night standing in the driveway of a family member’s home in the 25200 block of Harker Lane. The 6-year-old died a few hours later. Her father survived.

Riverside County Sheriff’s officials have said the incident may have been gang-related, but they do not believe Tiana’s father had any gang ties. No arrests have been made.

Anniese Parrish, a longtime friend of the family who helped organize the services, said Ricks’ mother, a recent graduate of Cal State Long Beach, is devastated.

“There are not enough beautiful words to say about this little girl,” Parrish told the Press-Telegram on Friday. “She was smart, talented, caring.”

A family member who did not want to be identified remembered Tiana as a smart little girl who enjoyed school and had a good role model in her mother, Marquia Macklin, 25, whose goal is to be an attorney.

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Tiana had just started an advanced program in her second-grade class at Dooley Elementary School in Long Beach.

“She was a good girl, always smiling, and she loved her mother and father,” the woman said. “What could this child have done to deserve this? Nothing. It just don’t make sense.”

Another woman told of Tiana’s love of music and held up a picture on her phone of Tiana playing a toy piano.

Two prominent West Coast rappers have spoken out publicly to denounce the violence that contributed to Tiana’s death.

Long Beach rap icon Snoop Lion gave an undisclosed amount, and former Compton resident The Game donated $10,000 to help the family with funeral expenses.

Moved by the little girl’s death, Snoop Lion posted on Twitter, “RIP 6yr old Tiana from LBC recently killed. Such a senseless tragedy. We MUST do better. #nogunsallowed”

In a statement, Snoop called the girl’s death “heartbreaking.”

“Little 6-year-old girls are not supposed to die from a gunshot. But it keeps happening,” Snoop said in the statement. “From the mass shootings in Aurora and Newtown, to gang violence in the streets and murders in our own backyards, too many tears are being shed, too many young lives are being cut short. We need to come together to change this.”

“Beautiful Tiana loved to play the piano — she had a whole life ahead of her which she should have been filled with love and music,” Snoop added.

Outside the church Saturday morning, Elisa Hernandez stopped for a moment to take in the scene of news cameras and mourners.

“It makes you so scared for your children,” said Hernandez, who had followed news coverage of Tiana’s death during the week. “I heard about this. She was at a party for a family member that was going to go away to college. That’s a good thing, and to have something so terrible happen, I don’t know what I would do if something like that happened to me.”

As mourners poured out of the church and the miles-long procession made its way to a nearby cemetery, other family members were busy setting up a birthday party for Tiana, who would have turned 7 next Saturday.

The party’s theme was from the Disney movie “The Princess and the Frog,” whose main character is named Tiana. Dozens of children ran around the playground at Simms Park in Bellflower as family members conversed, many in white T-shirts with an image of Tiana wearing a cap and gown.

The brightly colored balloons and laughing children masked the bittersweet celebration of life for a little girl who would not be there to enjoy it.

Police are still searching for Tiana’s killers and ask anyone with information on the case to contact the Riverside County Sheriff’s Central Homicide Unit at 951-955-2777 or the Moreno Valley Police Department at 951-486-6700.